Off to the ferry terminal

Cape Breton to PEI Ferry

Wednesday 8 10 2016

We were packed and ready to go by 9:30am, a full two and a half hours before our planned departure. I had already informed the wagon master that we were going off the grid for a couple days and would meet back up with the group on Prince Edward Island. It made no sense to delay so off we went.

Perhaps a word of explanation for our behavior is in order. We've already decided that this is our first and last guided RV tour. Don't take that to mean we have not enjoyed ourselves. The trip leaders and our fellow travelers are all nice folks, we're just too free spirited to be part of a group. We like traveling to the cadence of our loose and often changing itinerary. Anyhow, this morning it felt liberating to be back on the road without having detailed turn by turn directions and fuel stop locations. We rode down from the mountains with big smiles on our faces!

Beautiful scenery

There is only one route in or out of the Cape Breton area so we back tracked Hwy 105 to Hwy 104. The hills, valleys and lakes surprised us with new tapestry as we viewed the landscape from the opposite direction. We stopped at an overlook we had seen on our way up country. The overlook parking was on our side of the road now, we stopped and took some pictures of a large inland sea ringed by mountains. It is beyond the skill's of this writer to accurately describe it, it is simply beautiful.

At New Glasgow we stopped at a Sobey's grocery store for a few items and lunch. Sobey's is the most prevalent grocery chain we've seen in Canada. From there it was a short drive of about 25 miles to Caribou-Munroes Island Provincial Park.

Caribou and Monroe Island Provincial Park

They had a spot for us but it has no hook ups, We are fully self contained and can “rough it” without TV or internet for a day! The good news is we are in location for a quick get away in the morning. The site they put us in is on a service road to the perimeter of the park, the gate is directly in front of the motorhome, it is not locked. I have the jeep hooked up and ready to roll, in the morning we will make a very early departure via our personal exit.

Our early morning exit from the park

Why, you ask are we in such a hurry? Our plan is to catch the eight in the morning ferry to the island. The boarding priority is; cars first, commercial trucks second, and RV's last. There is nothing I can do about the cars or trucks but I plan on getting up at 5am, retract the slides, open my exit gate and rolling down the road. The Ferry terminal is only about 2 miles away and I hope to be the first RV in line. After we have secured our spot in line we can; go back to sleep, start the generator and make coffee, take a shower, etc. As I said before we are self contained and we will get ready for the day while in line for the eight o'clock boat ride.

Pictou waterfront

Before settling in for the night we took the jeep down the road to the town of Pictou. It is a drab little town on the banks of the Northumberland Strait. It has a small harbor area with a few restaurants, a few bars, a park and marina. It doesn't have the quant nautical feel that a successful tourist town projects, to me it appears tired. But what do I know, several of the guest houses we passed had no vacany signs, so maybe it's popular with the locals and has no interest in a wider tourist trade.

Replica of ship that brought Scottish settlers to PEI

Back at the provincial park we walked to the beach, the sea was very calm, not a ripple in it. This area is sheltered by Cape Breton and Newfoundland, but they are a long ways off, the strait is open to the sea, the nearest land being P.E.Island which is about 20 miles across from us.